My Company

This tip is all about a very simple psychological tactic that will dramatically increase the response from your ads, sales letters and all the other marketing pieces you use. It works by doing nothing more than adding a reason to your requests for action.

In his book, "Influence: The New Psychology of Modern Persuasion," Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D sights a very interesting
case study conducted by Harvard social psychologist Ellen Langer, which not only suggests, but proves, that by adding a reason to
your requests (for example, asking people to call you for an appointment) increases the likelihood that your prospects
will take the action you're requesting.

To prove this point, Ellen and her team set up a simple experiment using a library copy machine and the line of people waiting to use it. Once the line was long enough, Ellen would ask if she could cut in line using this phrase: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I'm in a rush?"

As Robert explains, the success of this approach to cut in line
was nearly 94 percent, which means that out of every 100 people she asked, 94 of them complied.

To test this even further, Ellen took a second trip to the line of waiting people (a different set of people, of course) and
asked the same favor, this time, without the use of a reason: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?"

A third trip to the line of waiting people proved that it wasn't necessarily the use of a reason that granted her such a high
return for success, but nothing more than the inclusion of the word, "because." On this third trip, she asked, "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?"

As you can very plainly see, "because I have to make some copies" isn't truly a justifiable reason for having to cut in line when compared to "because I'm in a rush." Even so, this final phrase increased her response rate once again to very near 94 percent, which brings us to focus on the single word, "because."

By adding this linguistic trigger for compliance to your sales copy or request for just about any action you're looking for
your prospects to take, you can very easily increase both your response and profits with no major work on your part.

It's just a simple word change.

For example, rather than saying, “Call me right now and you’ll receive a free, no risk, no obligation financial analysis.” use the word "because" in place of "and," and phrase it like so: "Call me right now because you’ll a receive a free no risk, no obligation financial analysis."

It might surprise you, but this simple change of words could quite literally double, even triple your appointment rate. And this tactic can be used in just about any setting you see fit. Not just in your business life, but in your personal life, as well.

Rather than saying, "Lew, may I borrow your car?," it would work more to your advantage to ask, "Lew, may I borrow your car,
because I would like to run down to the store and get us something to eat."

Which reminds me to say that while the word "because" us the trigger for compliance, it's not a guarantee. However, following the word "because" with a strong, beneficial reason for the person you're requesting the action of (such as, because I would like to run down to the store and get us something to eat") will more than likely create a higher response than any old reason (such as, "because I have to make some copies").

So rather than saying, "Call me right now, because you’ll a receive a free no risk, no obligation financial analysis," try something like, "Call me right now because you’ll a receive a free no risk,no obligation financial analysis and have the retirement you’ve always dreamed of."
The suggestion here is that you stop what you're doing right now, and if you're not using this simple tactic in your sales
copy (for your products, services or to build your lists), that you take 10 minutes and do so now. Because you'll be amazed at how well this really does work to your benefit.

The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of ProducersWEB.

Reprinting or reposting this article without prior consent of Producersweb.com is strictly prohibited.
If you have questions, please visit our terms and conditions

About the Author

Lew Nason, RFC, LUTCF, CFLA with his sons Jeremy Nason, RFC, CFLA and Will Nason, RFA, CFLA are the creators of the Famous Insurance Pro Shop, the 1st Affordable, Full Service Marketing and Sales Training Resource for Today's S... More